I'm loving it here, and loving all the different things I get to do. Hopefully, this might be a slightly shorter post, as I have a big day tomorrow. :-)
Monday, I had class in the morning. I have been learning from this class not only how to teach, but I've definitely learned some Spanish, and most of all, it gives me a connection with the seminary students. They are so sweet, and I have loved getting to know each of them. I think these girls are who I'm going to miss the most when I go. (Other than Rachel... I've really enjoyed getting to know her too!)
After class, I came and got a shower during the day while it's slightly warmer. It's funny though... Tonight after Oansa, Wednesday, I was standing talking to Rachel in a short sleeve shirt, and it's 55 inside. If I were in Florida in the middle of winter, I would be bundled at 55. :-)
I told you about the festival, and that Rachel and I picked up bottles before church one night. Monday, Rachel, Alicia, and I washed about 150 bottles. I put in some pictures so you could see the process. These bottles are a special project. The end product is... a bottle with different tracts with a church's address on it and marbles (to weigh it down so you can throw it) with the bottom spray painted orange. You can throw these to boats and float them down river while in the jungle. It's really a neat idea! So whenever we are out, and see bottles laying around, we pick them up for our project! The pictures show the whole process. You rinse them once, then scrub them with soap, then toss them in another bucket to rinse them, then put the upsidedown to dry. And I washed all the lids. Very colorful!
Alicia and I had a blast washing them together. Even if we didn't talk the whole time, we still had fun, and it was ok. She talked about different things, and her new and only niece that was born Monday... Awww... I was helping with her work and she knows that I want to be with her, not just say hi when she comes in the afternoon. We tried to get off this one wrapped, and then figured that fingernail clippers work great. And they were the closest thing I could get to. It was just fun, and think how many many people will hear the gospel because of those bottles!!!
Monday nights, the sophomore class comes over and does their thing. I don't quite understand all of it, but I sit on the stairs and observe. They are memorizing the book of James, so I read along in a Spanish new testament. Um... For dinner was something special. Rachel got her dinner early, and she said, "oh here, try this". It looked like brownie, but she said it was meat. I tried it and it had a strong, but not bad flavor. It was fine. Ended out it was fried liver. Yum... I ate about half, and then ran out of rice to tone down the strong flavor. It wasn't bad. Everyday for lunch, I eat traditional Peruvian. We have our soup, then a topping over rice. Today was good. Sauteed potatoes, a little onions and peppers, and beef with a salty sauce over rice. :-) the soup base tasted like it had dried corn husk type stuff in it. It tasted like grain in the soup broth.
Tuesday was the big day for class! Everyone had picked and diligently prepared a lesson from a Bible story. I chose Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. I used different examples on trust, and how they trusted God in their situation. Everyone did a good job, but from what I could tell, 3 did really well. Yanet, Milka on Noah, and Marcos blew everyone out of the water with The Good Samaritan. It was really good! Wow! Everyone did well, and it was good listening to each lesson!
Bethany come for school that afternoon, so I got to talk a bit with her. She is the sweetest thing! She braided my hair (which she likes to do, and I like done) and then we went and sat on a perfect perch of a tree stump for a piece of watermelon! It was great! The sun was setting, and every thing was glowing! We, Rachel and I, are invited to dinner Saturday at their house, so that will be great! She has 2 younger brothers, and a baby sister on the way. :-)
Rachel and I volunteered to babysit the Pardine kids for the evening. They have 3: Joshua who is 5, Stephen who is 3, and Gabriella who is 3 months. (She melts your heart so cute) it was a walk in the park babysitting evening. We played trains a bit, I held the baby while Rachel made dinner, chicken nuggets, macaroni, fruit, and homemade chocolate chip bread. It was really good! The baby feel asleep while I was holding her, and woke up happy 10 minutes before mom got home. We were happy to help, and Mr and Mrs Pardine I'm sure were happy for the break!
This morning I had class. Tomorrow we present our wordless book presentation. I think that will go pretty well. Hopefully. :-) chapel was in English and Spanish today because Mr part Campbell taught so i was excited! I like chapel and the singing, and being with the people. We are learning about different visuals in class, and today was about puppets! So today during class, part of the day was making the puppet, and the other part was split up into groups working on a show. My group is Marcos and Milka. Poor Marcos was trying so hard to understand my English, and I was trying to understand his Spanish, but sometimes, it didn't work out. I found out tonight on the way home from Oansa, that some girl said something and he translated. He said she felt like a penguin. I'm like... Where do you study English to know how to say PENGUIN of all words. I was pretty shocked/impressed... Like how often do you need that word... Oh well, I'll keep trying. :-) I'm learning new words everyday too. :-)
I worked on my puppets, and finished the sewing and face. They look... Ok... As good as I could make them. We headed out for church early, and then Rachel, Alicia, and I went out to dinner. I got an empanada, and they got their hot dog over potatoes. It was the same place as last week, so you get to pick from their myriad of desserts. I had tres leches cake, and it was good! We enjoyed talking together. I find though, when Rachel is there that I'm more hesitant to use my Spanish, but I'm keeping trying.
At the pre Oansa meeting, I looked around, and I knew everyone's name except 3, and now I know theirs. Almost got the names down, and there are a lot of them! I waked with Bethany back to her house to get ready for Oansa. It's close by, and a ton of people walk around here. She is a sweetheart! Tonight at Oansa it was their nature walk night, so we writing to the town square, looked at the plants, stars, trees, and got God made them. Then they had a snack for their picture taken with Sparky, the main Sparks leader, and their favorite leader. (I took the pictures) they sang their Sparks song, and the my God is so great, so strong and so mighty, there's nothing my God can not do. They had their lesson, and then I helped clean up.
I walked back with 10 students or so, and that was great! Next Wednesday is crazy hair night. Messing up/trying new crazy hair styles on the way back turned into a pretty interesting game of tag. :-) :-) :-) it was fun. I haven't really run since I've been here, and I don't last that long. :-) I gave everyone their goodbye/are you tomorrow hugs, and went inside. We had hot chocolate and an orange for a snack :-) I got stuff ready for class, for a shower, and wrote this, and now I'm ready for bed!
Thanks for all your thoughts and prayers!
I will now always look at empty soda bottles and think of their good use in Peru :-)
ReplyDeleteLove you lots,
Momma